The original meaning of birthright citizenship likely doesn't cover tourists' kids, but it definitely covers children of undocumented residents.
March 26, 2026
Original Paper
The Citizenship Clause's Residence Requirement
SSRN · 6468663
The Takeaway
While modern law treats birthright citizenship as an all-or-nothing binary, this legal analysis reveals a forgotten 'middle ground' based on residence. It argues that the 14th Amendment was intended to grant citizenship to anyone who actually *lives* here regardless of legal status, while excluding 'temporary sojourners' like vacationers.
From the abstract
<p><span>The debate about President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order denying automatic American citizenship to children born in the United States to unlawfully or temporarily present foreign parents is divided into two polar-opposite camps asserting that it’s wholly constitutional or wholly unconstitutional. In a new academic paper, I make the case that the 1868 original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment;s Citizenship Clause supports a middle position: a child born in the United States